


Christmas on Kirit

by Fox_the_Clever_Turnip



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Character(s), Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Gen, Interspecies Relationship(s), Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 08:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2844299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_the_Clever_Turnip/pseuds/Fox_the_Clever_Turnip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ethaniel shows Niran a sort-of-proper Earth Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas on Kirit

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic on AO3, and it's a tiny spin-off one-shot from a much larger body of work I've been adding to for a gajillion years. So, Merry sci-fi, interspecies Christmas, everyone. <3

Christmas trees were a foreign concept on Kirit. Then again, Christmas wasn’t exactly a universally celebrated concept anymore anywhere, but Ethaniel wasn’t ready to give it up. There was a certain romance to it. Snow and trees and decorations. Giving gifts and keeping warm together. Winter in the Kiritian desert was a dry and unpleasant affair, but Ethaniel thought he could figure something out to make it authentic.

Niran was hard to surprise, but Ethaniel thought he might benefit from a proper Christmas. There was much work to be done in the Kiritian underground, and Niran always had plenty to keep him busy. They were thieves, assassins, and all-around bad guys, really, but Ethaniel sort of liked the life. Niran ruled with an iron fist, but everyone seemed to absolutely adore him. After thirty years without him, thirty years thinking he was dead, Ethaniel wanted to spend his first Christmas with Niran on good terms. Happy. Celebrating. They hadn’t had cause to celebrate much and every time they were together it seemed there was always something they were trying to avoid. Don’t talk about the missing three decades. Don’t talk about Niran’s struggle in those years. About Than’s anger and Niran’s penchant for withdrawing. Just once, he wanted them to be happy.

So, he found a tree, an ugly, shoulder-height tree with dark green spines that grew in balls off of the knots in the branches, like angry little dark clouds. Still, it was the closest to a pine tree he could find on such short notice. Instead of colored glass balls, he roped the children into helping him create little clay-sculpture ornaments, painted with pigments he’d traded for with the artists in the western halls.

Then there were the lights.

Than agonized over the lights for days as he squirreled away everything else. Garlands of cactus flowers, the pretty ornaments the kids made, even a foil star he’d made out of candy wrappers he’d taken back from Dorset Station. It was a ton of candy, and he never wanted to look at chocolate again, but it did the trick.

But the lights were a different story. They had no string lights on Kirit, and, even on his ship, he didn’t exactly have anything he could convert into something Christmas-y.

Leaving his workroom packed full of things he’d gathered over the previous weeks, Ethaniel locked up and snuck down to the ground level where the shops opened up for barter. There was always someone who needed something in exchange for goods or information. It was a shady way to live, but they knew Than and respected him. It didn’t take much for him to get what he wanted, typically.

Knocking lightly on an open stall, Than smiled when a scarf-wrapped Ularian head popped up, the bird-like reptilian blinking slitted eyes at him.

“Did you get what I asked for?” Than asked, leaning on the tabletop.

“I did,” chirped the vendor, soft-scaled lips parting in a grin. “Took a bit more than I expected, you know.”

Than shook his head. “We agreed, Biari. I turn my head once, that’s it. Niran won’t be happy, but I can make it happen once. Make it count.”

Biari made a face, his charcoal skin shimmering as he ducked behind the lantern swinging from the canopy. “Once, fine. It’ll be a big shipment, then, so you keep the King very, very busy, yes?”

“Yes. Now, hand it over.” Ethaniel gestured with his right hand until Biari plopped a crystal clear rope of plastic into it. “This is it? It’ll light up?”

Biari nodded. “In the dark, yes. The bioluminescence is activated in the dark. It will only last a night, maybe two, so make it count.”

“Mm. Make it count. Thanks.” Ethaniel tucked the rope into a bag at his hip. “What’s it made of anyway?”

“Glow worm guts. Don’t uncap it. Carnivorous little bastards. Their insides smell like meat left in the sun.” Biari grinned and ducked back beneath his stall.

“That’s… disgusting, but noted,” Than said and wrinkled his nose. By his calculation, it would be Christmas Eve back on Earth, at Ashgate. He was very lucky to have known Christmas, a clone living in a lab as he was. When he was small, his father—well, the man he was cloned from, actually, and the only ‘father’ he had ever known—made certain to treat him as any normal child, in the important ways, anyway. He experienced school and love and Christmas and playing. Most clone children weren’t so lucky.

Ethaniel jogged back up to the rooms he shared with Niran, and ducked into his tiny workroom. He had precious little time before Niran returned from his meetings with his men. Thieves they were, but they operated so militarily it was almost alarming. And impressive.

#

Niran stretched his wings in the empty hallway of the plateau and heaved a sigh. It was getting frigid in the arid wastelands they occupied, and these meetings felt like they lasted days sometimes. All of the arguing he and Ethaniel did lately was exhausting. What if things never went back to the way they were?

It was his own fault, of course. He shouldn’t have lied. Shouldn’t have faked his death. Ethaniel could protect himself, and he knew that, but there was such a mess he had to deal with. When he began to fall for Ethaniel, after taking care of the boy when he first crashed, it was a nightmare of ethics and nonsense, but when they finally got past it, there was nothing more perfect. But things got out of hand, and he had to disappear. Than had been crushed. If there was anyone who deserved to be angry, it was Ethaniel. Niran did his very best to avoid any sort of controversial conversation with him, now, danced around the topics that mattered, and did all he could to avoid any more arguments.

All he wanted was to be worthy of his human mate again.

Scrubbing his face with his palms, Niran trudged back down to their home, wings sagging a bit. If he was lucky, there would be a fresh bottle of flame plum wine replacing the one he drained last night waiting in his cabinet. There were perks to running the plateau.

Opening the door, he stepped in and began pulling off the cuffs and jewelry that adorned his wing peaks and forearms. It all felt so heavy.

“You look miserable. I take it didn’t go well?” Ethaniel asked from their bedroom doorway.

Niran glanced up and cleared his throat. “It went fine. We’ve got a contract with the Dhania Basin. They’ll trade us their clay for josee palms. They also want a hand in any heists or large-scale jobs neighboring their region. I’m still negotiating that one.”

Ethaniel approached and helped him remove the rest of his jewelry, unclasping the heavy collar that marked him as King. “Let them have a percentage. What’s it hurting?”

“If I give in to Dhanians, I’ll have to give in to the Ghorans, the Tilas, and the Kar’eks. I’m not giving away money. We have a society to support within the plateau. If they want spoils from a heist, then let them plan one,” he snapped.

Than recoiled a bit. “I just meant—”

“I know…. I know, I’m sorry. That was… uncalled for.” Niran turned and struggled to lift his eyes to meet Than’s. “It’s just stressful.”

“I know it is.” Ethaniel slid his hand into Niran’s and gave him a gentle tug. “I have a surprise for you. Come on. It’s Christmas Eve on Earth, you know. Where I’m from, anyway.”

Niran tucked his wings tightly against his back. “Is it? That’s… fascinating. I know of the holy day, but I’m unfamiliar with its customs. Are you homesick tonight?”

“No, no… it’s nothing like that,” he said, opening the door to their sun room. It was dark except for the ugly tree wrapped in a spiral of orange-red and bright green light and peppered in tiny ceramic ornaments. Red flower garlands were strung across the massive window and woven around the gauzy blue drapes.

Blinking, Niran stood at the door and looked around. “What is all of this?”

“Christmas. You decorate a tree and put garlands and things up. There are even stockings—”

“I don’t know what a stocking is,” Niran said softly, and watched Than smile and cross to their brazier.

“They go on a mantle, but we don’t have a mantle, so I strung them from the ceiling by the brazier. They’re… mostly big socks you put small presents in. I thought it was a neat idea. I mean, I didn’t put anything in them, but I think I can be better prepared for next Christmas.” Ethaniel looked around at the glowing room, and grabbed the poker, jabbing lightly at the dying embers in the brazier.

Niran laughed a little. For the first time in months, he laughed and looked around them. “How long did all of this take?”

“Well… I got some of the kids down in the pods to help me make the ornaments. Paid them a bit. Then there was Biari, which was interesting. He got us the lights. Don’t ask what’s in them, just enjoy the ambience,” Than laughed a bit, and moved over to Niran, reaching up and gently tugging a strand of his hair. “I love you. I know we haven’t had much cause to exchange those words lately, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve been hard on you—”

“No, you haven’t. I haven’t tried hard enough,” Niran began, his voice hitching.

Ethaniel closed the gap between them and pulled him against himself. His fingers gently stroked the outside of his mate’s wing. “Thirty years is a long time, Niran. I spent a long time heartbroken and grieving. I never got past your death, and when you showed up on my ship that day….”

“You knew I wasn’t dead.”

“Yeah, but you had to be. I had to believe you were because if you weren’t, then that means you had to lie to me, or, worse, you were running from me. You _had_ to be dead, and it destroyed me.” Than sighed, and shook his head. “But it’s past now. All of it. Come on, Niran. It’s Christmas.” He grinned a little and nudged. “You forgive me and I’ll forgive you and we can get better together. I want us to be better. I got you a present.”

Niran swallowed hard as Than walked away, lifting a hand to wipe his tears away. “You didn’t have to. I don’t even know what the point of this holiday is.”

“Just that. Forgiveness. Togetherness. Love. The whole point. There’s some religious shit in there, too, but it’s not really my area, you know?” Than chuckled.

“Sounds like it’s probably blasphemous,” Niran laughed tearfully, and accepted the box that Ethaniel pulled from under the ugly tree. “It’s a… box with paper on it.”

“You tear the paper off,” Than laughed.

“I don’t understand the point of the paper.”

“Jesus, Niran, just rip it off. It conceals the gift inside so it looks pretty and it can be a surprise,” said Ethaniel, motioning to the box.

Niran eyed. “That’s a bit of a waste of paper. Human customs never cease to confuse me.”

“Ularian customs never cease to annoy me. Just tear it off,” Than said.

Niran gave one last sniffle, before pulling the box free of paper and dropping the plain yellow wrappings into the open top of the brazier. When the wrapping was off, there was only a dark wooden box painted in swirling gold designs, a dragon on its lid. Niran flipped the tiny gold latch up and opened the lid slowly. Inside was an inch long glass egg in a gold wire cage, a gold chain wound through the top. He plucked it out and set the box down on the table by the door. “An egg….”

“Yeah. Gerix saved a bit of the shell… from… from our—” Ethaniel’s voice cracked, and he paused, only to have Niran throw himself at him, damn near knocking him into the tree. His arms tangled around Than’s shoulders and he kissed him firmly and squarely on the lips, his wings flaring out a bit to balance them.

He broke the kiss, but didn’t let Ethaniel out of his grasp. “Was this all you had of him…?”

Than nodded. “I made it just after I found out you were gone… it was all I had of both of you…. It was my fault your arm band was broken, my fault it was lost. I want you to have this more than anything, Niran. A new beginning for us, okay?”

Niran unscrewed the barrel clasp and handed it to Ethaniel before turning around. Than smiled a little and put the chain around his neck and screwed it closed. Niran fiddled with the egg, touching it as if absorbing all it was and all it symbolized.

“A new beginning. It sounds very nice, Than, but we don’t need a new beginning. We are everything that’s happened to us. It’s carved and sculpted us into who we are, and it’s… been so hard, and I regret so much, but we’re here because of all of it. I’m sorry for everything, but I don’t want to let go of it, the good or the bad. I love you. Is that… alright?”

Ethaniel worked to swallow the growing lump in his throat, and nodded, pulling Niran against himself again. “Yes. It’s more than alright…. Thank you.”

His mate always a colossus of a man, Niran bowed his head and plunked it against Ethaniel’s collarbone, tangling his arms around his shoulders. “So… a glorious… blessed? Um… victorious Christmas, then?”

Than laughed. “ _Merry_ Christmas, Niran….”


End file.
